How to avoid early check in questions?

I had a boomer ask for early check-in and late check-out. I could not provide either so she wrote a revenge review. This boomer thought it was ok to check out late. So she did not vacate the unit for an hour after check-out time. The cleaning crew had to wait.

All I can say is that there is no pattern in who asks for early check-in. I can’t pin it down to a certain group. It’s random.

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I’ve had lots of ‘boomers’ ask for early check in/late departure.

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Really? Our message the day before check-out says that we and our cleaners ‘will enter’ the unit at 10 am, and that is our intention. We’ve never had to do that but that’s what we would do, starting with the bathroom. If some of the guests were ready we’d ask them to get their luggage in their vehicle and wait outside. I think that the laggard guest(s) would finish quickly.

That way we could start on the laundry, which requires the longest elapsed time. If we couldn’t get the bathroom started we could start on the kitchen, which can also be time consuming.

We might suffer a poor review but if the guest mentioned that I’d wonder whether we could get it removed as it would clearly be in retaliation for our enforcing the check-out time.

I do understand that if you are not able to join your cleaners that you might well feel that you wouldn’t want to put your cleaners in such a confrontational approach where they are not equipped to respond to whatever objections a guest might make. The Host or co-Host would really need to be with the cleaners in such a situation.

Alternatively, perhaps the Host or co-host could call the guests and explain what is going to happen next, document that call on the platform and then have the cleaners enter.

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There’s so many reasons why a guest might request early check-in or late check-out, some just a matter of entitlement, or “maximizing” their booking without paying for an extra night, but some perfectly understandable. If a guest doesn’t convey the reason they are asking, we have no idea, but if they do, it seems like acknowledging a reasonable request, even if you can’t accommodate it, is part of hospitality.

An early flight for someone with small children, mobility issues, or a single woman in an unfamiliar area might make it logistically difficult just hang out somewhere waiting until check-in time. If a host can’t provide some flexibility, a nice response, rather than “No early check-in” like, “Hi XX, I realize it may be difficult with small children in tow not to be able to check in early, but unfortunately my cleaning schedule does not allow for early check-in. Here is info for a place where you can store luggage, and some places where you could go with the kids that they would enjoy, until check-in time. Alternatively, you could also book the previous night, which is currently still available, so you could check in as soon as you arrive in town.”, might make the difference between a complaining review and a good one.

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